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Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun learn more about the music

Two rising Russian stars come together in one evening of wonderfully vibrant music making guaranteed to banish the February blues.

Dreamlike themes and soaring, sunny melodies are promised in a concert which also features one of Beethoven’s most popular symphonic movements.

You can learn more about what to expect in our programme notes which this year are being presented in a new and accessible way.

And in addition, this companion page draws together a range of complementary content which we hope will help shine additional light on the pieces, the people who composed them and the performers bringing them to life here in Hope Street.

Maxim Emelyanychev

Dynamic young Russian conductor Maxim Emelyanychev returns to Liverpool Philharmonic Hall where he made such an impression during the 2018/19 season when he conducted Haydn’s London Symphony and Mozart’s Requiem.

The award winning Emelyanychev was born into a family of musicians near the city of Nizhny Novgorod in 1988 and made his conducting debut when he was just 12. He also plays the piano, harpsichord and cornet.

Aged 25 he was appointed principal conductor of both Il Pomo d’Oro – an ensemble specialising in historically informed performances of music from the Baroque and classical periods - and the Nizhny Novgorod Soloists Chamber Orchestra.

He is currently principal conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, a role he took on in 2019 after stepping in to guest conduct the orchestra in Robin Ticciati’s absence.

Watch an interview with Maxim Emelyanychev.

Aylen Pritchin

Aylen Pritchin, who makes his Liverpool debut in this concert, is described as one of the most vivid and versatile violinists of his generation.

Pritchin was born in Leningrad in 1987 and started to learn the violin at six, going on to study at the Rimsky-Korsakov St Petersburg State Conservatory and the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow.

In demand as a soloist with orchestras across the world, this season he is also due to play with the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra and Taiwan National Symphony.

He also regularly appears with pianist Lukas Geniušas.

And the multi award-winning violinist is also a regular collaborator with Maxim Emelyanychev; together they recently recorded and released an album of Brahms sonatas for piano and violin performed on period instruments.

Watch Aylen Pritchin and Maxim Emelyanychev perform the scherzo from Brahms’ F-A-E Sonata.

Claude Debussy

Claude Debussy was aged 32 and still yet to break through to become a major musical force when he came to work on a new composition.

The original idea for Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune was to create three movements along with an interlude.

But at some point the innovative piece, which took its name from an erotic work by 19th Century French symbolist poet Stéphane Mallarmé, became a single movement symphonic poem which vividly evokes the dreams of a mythical faun in the warmth of the afternoon.

Its premiere in Paris in December 1894 is now regarded as one of the most significant moments in the history of modern music.

In 1912 it was adapted into a ballet which was choreographed and performed by Nijinsky at the Ballet Russes in the French capital.

Did you know? While still at the Paris Conservatoire, a teenage Debussy came under the patronage of Nadezhda Filaretovna von Meck, the Russian millionairess businesswoman who also supported Tchaikovsky and Nikolai Rubenstein.

Watch Rudolph Nureyev perform the ballet version of Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune.

Sergei Prokofiev

A solitary lament on solo violin gives way to a warm second theme in the darkly lyrical first movement of Sergei Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No 2 in G minor.

The homesick Prokofiev composed the work in 1935 shortly after he finally quit the West and returned to Russia to live – as opposed to successful, but brief, touring visits – for the first time since the 1917 Revolution.

If the opening movement is darkly lyrical, the second, an andante assai, is its sunny foil, its violin melody soaring over pizzicato strings.

The concerto had its premiere in Madrid with French violinist Robert Soetens performing with the Madrid Symphony Orchestra, and Prokofiev added Spanish ornamentation and castanets to the score’s final frenetic rondo.

Did you know? When Prokofiev died from a cerebral haemorrhage in 1953, he left behind a pile of unfinished commissions including sketches for a concerto for two pianos, a 10th and 11th piano sonata and a cello sonata.

Listen to a performance of Violin Concerto No 2 in G minor.

Ludwig van Beethoven

Beethoven was taking the restorative waters in the Bohemian town of Teplitz when he started to compose his new symphony in 1811.

Despite the onset of the deafness which would blight his final years, Symphony No 7 in A major with its lively rhythms and fiery finale is considered a notable example of the more ebullient side of his compositional personality.

Interestingly it was the symphony’s sombre and profound allegretto second movement which proved an instant hit, with the audience at its 1813 premiere (a charity concert for wounded soldiers in Vienna) demanding an immediate encore.

And the allegretto has remained hugely popular – not only with concert audiences but also with filmmakers with appearances in films including Mr Holland’s Opus, X Men Apocalypse and The King’s Speech.

Listen to the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra perform Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony.